Shipping a car Grandpa's T-Bird

[ledhedsymbols]

Here's the cliff notes version...

I'm buying my grandfather's 1961 Thunderbird. I always told him if he wanted to sell it, please call me first. It's located in Tooele, UT and I live in Mount Vernon, WA which is an hour and a half north of Seattle.

I don't know if I want to subject it to a 1000 mile trip without going over it, so flying there and driving it back is my last option.

If I drive my truck and a car trailer, we are looking at minimum 500 bucks in fuel and two days each way driving.

I'm interested in having it shipped, but how do I pick someone reputable? I've tried a couple of brokerages, but I see at least a bad review or two for every shipper I was contacted by.

[id10t]

Can Grandpa travel? If so, an epic roadtrip could be a great thing that you'll both remember as long as you live... Cell phone, extra charger(s), AAA card (with "plus" or gold membership), plan on taking a week to do it, and enjoy your time with the old man. You fly in and pick him up, drive home, then fly grandpa home.

Wish I could do something like that, but all grandparents are dead as is my father....

[speeder]

Originally Posted by id10t

Can Grandpa travel? If so, an epic roadtrip could be a great thing that you'll both remember as long as you live... Cell phone, extra charger(s), AAA card (with "plus" or gold membership), plan on taking a week to do it, and enjoy your time with the old man. You fly in and pick him up, drive home, then fly grandpa home.

Wish I could do something like that, but all grandparents are dead as is my father....

Ahh, sorry but that's a really bad idea. It sounds good in a Hallmark postcard, feel-good movie kind of way but in reality it would be dumb.

As someone who has road tripped more than anyone I know, including flying across the country to buy old cars and motorcycles, it's not all it's cracked-up to be. Driving all day long through barren fly-over states sucks. Even in a brand new rental car with 100% reliability and comfort, the drive described is probably not on the old guy's bucket list.

Ship the car. I've had great luck with U-ship, it's a website where you accept bids from various shippers. You need to do your own quick due diligence on them but there is a feedback system and other ways to protect yourself somewhat. use common sense. If you don't have a lot of common sense, then use the most expensive, highly-rated service you can find. It will still be cheaper and about a thousand times smarter than driving a '61 T-bird 1000 miles and buying two plane tickets.

Unless the car was maintained to the hilt, I would not even entertain the thought.

[SilberUrS6]

Originally Posted by ledhedsymbols

Here's the cliff notes version...

I'm buying my grandfather's 1961 Thunderbird. I always told him if he wanted to sell it, please call me first. It's located in Tooele, UT and I live in Mount Vernon, WA which is an hour and a half north of Seattle.

I don't know if I want to subject it to a 1000 mile trip without going over it, so flying there and driving it back is my last option.

If I drive my truck and a car trailer, we are looking at minimum 500 bucks in fuel and two days each way driving.

I'm interested in having it shipped, but how do I pick someone reputable? I've tried a couple of brokerages, but I see at least a bad review or two for every shipper I was contacted by.

If you want it done right, do it yourself. Sure, it's a bit of a haul, but you'd be surprised at how well a diesel truck will haul a car and trailer. Go down, rent the truck and trailer from UHaul for a one-way. Drive up I15 -> I84 into ID and OR , cross into WA at the Tri-Cities up HWY 395 to HWY 26, get on I90 at Vantage, I405 north east of Lake Washington to I5 - BOOM! Back in the Skagit Valley in no time. (SV native here, BTW.)

Yeah, it'll be a drive. You'll want to stop somewhere in ID to spend the night, for sure. The closer to OR, the better. And you'll make sure to get the car to MV without having to worry as much about how the guy is handling it.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by speeder

Ahh, sorry but that's a really bad idea. It sounds good in a Hallmark postcard, feel-good movie kind of way but in reality it would be dumb.

As someone who has road tripped more than anyone I know, including flying across the country to buy old cars and motorcycles, it's not all it's cracked-up to be. Driving all day long through barren fly-over states sucks. Even in a brand new rental car with 100% reliability and comfort, the drive described is probably not on the old guy's bucket list.

By asking if Grandpa can travel I was kinda assuming any health related issues, etc. Don't know if the time involved would be prohibitive. Don't know grandpa or the OP, but my grandparents were world travelers into their late 70s and CONUS travel until 90, my mom is a spry almost 77 grandparent to my 3 and my brother's one ...

Some of my best memories from growing up include long car trips over a week or so period in the 356 with Dad. Best was probably when he picked me up from summer camp in N Carolina and we took 4 days to get back home to N Florida. Or maybe our 6 hour trips thru the back roads to get to Cedar Key, Crystal River, St. Augustine, (all less than a 2 hour straight trip) etc. Or maybe the trips to the keys - which included my first highway driving experience (rush hour leaving Ft Lauderdale headed to upper keys) in our '76 Olds wagon.

Won't have the memories if you don't take the chance to make 'em.

[speeder]

I agree in theory but the trip you are suggesting would be a bad memory, IMO. The car would take a schit 200 miles outside of grandpa's hometown and then he would get to re-live the worst weekend of his life from 1954 when he was young and stuck in the middle of the desert with a broken car. When you break down in the middle of nowhere, there are no awesome memories. It sucks ass. And that's when you're young.

Sorry, it's terrible advice in this case.

[ledhedsymbols]

Car hasn't driven any real distance in the last 20 years. Going on a 1000 mile road trip isn't going to happen.

Truck and trailer isn't something I have time for at this juncture either really. It's four days round trip, and that just isn't doable right now. I just ran it through Y'all Haul's website, and they are pricing a truck and vehicle trailer for about $1350, which is as much or more than the quotes I received for an enclosed hauler to take the car.

I guess I'm still looking for advice regarding my number one preferred option, which is how to hire a reliable reputable carrier/broker to ship the car.

[pc100porsche]

Jay Leno and Wayne Carini use these guys (theres a utube on the site with Leno explaining why) :
About Us - Intercity Lines, Inc

Mecum Auctions apparently use :
http://www.reliable-carriers.com/default.cfm

[Don Ro]

About Us - Intercity Lines, Inc
.
Top drawer shipper, it appears.
Driver says that he's put all 1.8 million miles on that Peterbilt. Guess he likes his job.
.
~~~~~~~~~
.
An aside...seems like every time I see a photo or a video of Leno he's wearing that some old blue shirt. Looks comfy.

[Noah930]

I used Intercity to ship my 911 coast-to-coast once, and was very happy with them.

[Tobra]

Never rent a truck from U haul, not ever

[speeder]

Intercity Lines is absolutely top drawer, fully insured, yadayadayada. For a car like the old T-Bird, unless it's a 98 pt. show car, I'd probably use U-ship. I've used them 3 times in 2014 with absolutely 100% success, cheap as hell each time as well. One experience was just loading-up a car I sold for a guy in Canada, but I met the driver and he was solid.

All three times were small operators with PU trucks pulling car hauler trailers but they were all salt-of-the-earth honest type individuals and delivered what they said they would with no damage or other shenanigans.

One was my DD, bought sight-unseen from NorCal and delivered to me for $300 through u-ship. I have 2 of the drivers' numbers in my phone if you want them. PM me.

You're going to pay double at least for Intercity or other enclosed top-shelf haulers.

My DD:

[Nickshu]

I had a good experience with Hillbilly Auto Transport, using an enclosed trailer. They do transports for Mecum, Barrett-Jackson, etc, reputable outfit. I
also looked at Intercity lines, pricing was a little bit higher with them but not much.

Hillbilly Auto Transport | Lebanon, MO 65536

If Grandpa's T-bird is not a 100 point show car then maybe non-enclosed transport is OK this time of year, would save you quite a bit on the price, enclosed was almost twice as costly when I shipped.

[Steve Carlton]

Try calling White Lightning at (253) 561-3497. Excellent. Use them all the time.

[911boost]

Yeah eff those "fly over states"

Whatever.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by BSiple

Yeah eff those "fly over states"

Whatever.

Colorado is one of my very favorite states. Near the top. But a lot of this great country, the parts that you see when you look out the window of a x-country jet, are just truly in the middle of freaking nowhere. Not where you want to have car trouble and spend a few days twirling your thumbs in a motel.

I've BTDT. These stretches suck to drive through, you certainly don't want to stop. Like the stretch from Des Moines to Denver. Then it gets real pretty from Denver in just about any direction but east.

[ledhedsymbols]

The T-Bird is a nice grade 3 car. Good driver, shines up nice, but not going to Pebble Beach or anything like that.

Thanks for the tips, I'll call White Lightning (That's a Pierce County Area code) as they look to be a fairly local outfit and I'll PM speeder for the numbers of his guys.

Thanks again for the help guys. I'll post the full story and photos in a couple three weeks once it's all done.

[scottmandue]

Maybe Seahawk could airlift it for you?
I just had to know what a 1961 Thunderbird looked like so I google image searched it. My buddy had one in high school had one!

[JavaBrewer]

Not knowing your schedule I would look to fly in, rent a truck and car carrier trailer one way from a major, and make it a 2 day adventure. Live is damn short. Love to see some pics of the t-bird. My Father loved the t-bird and finally got into a position to pick up a second hand v5 '69 model that we drove from Cali to Canada a 'few' times. His only complaint was that it ate tires...LOL. Sorry for the ramble. Would love to see the '61 when you get her home.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Fly there, put it in the back of a truck, drive home.